Then One of Them …
Sunday, October 14th, 2007
Twentieth after Pentecost
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Luke 17:11-19
Theme: How do WE express our gratitude towards God?

11On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, 13they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has
made you well.”

Imagine being afflicted with any one of a number of skin conditions or diseases that were all, for lack of more exact knowledge, called ‘leprosy’ in first century Palestine.

Imagine that because of that, we are forced out of the city, town or village we’ve grown up in, away from our family and friends and into an existence that is marginal at best, devastating by any measure, and one that will quickly lead us to wish for a quick death rather than endure years of isolation and pain, loneliness and struggles just to get enough food to survive on, or find shelter, or even clothes to wear, as ours fall apart due to exposure.

We are only allowed to associate with others who have been condemned to the same fate as us, who are suffering from similar illnesses, who have likewise been exiled from their communities. And we realize that in our suffering, there is a common bond that transcends any and all previous barriers we’re used to placing between us and the people who surround us. Those come-here’s, those city slickers, those rednecks, those foreigners, those people who don’t think, act, speak, or worship God just like we do are suddenly the only people with whom we ARE allowed to speak or hang out with. And however odd it may seem at first, we end up forming some kind of sad, twisted, community; a mismatched, shabby, ragged, dirty, hardscrabble band of men and women who spend our nights huddled together for warmth and our days the prescribed distance away from the “blessed ones” – the ones whom God has NOT seen fit to condemn to this horrible existence, the ones who take EVERYTHING ENTIRELY for granted … little realizing how quickly and drastically their comfortable existence could change – just a passing comment from a family friend asking “what’s that spot on your arm?” could be enough to get the ball of THEIR doom rolling just like ours was that would land THEM out HERE with the REST of us.

Then one day we hear of this man who has reportedly been traveling around the countryside healing the sick – for real! Making the lame walk, the blind see, casting out demons, even raising people from the dead! And he’s coming up the road. He’s on his way to Jerusalem, and he’s accompanied by his disciples.

And there he comes! There he is! JESUS!! MASTER!! HAVE MERCY ON US!!

“What did he say? Did you hear him? Go and show yourselves to the priest? Is that what he said? Show ourselves … to the same priest who declared us unclean and cast us out of town??”

One has to wonder what went through their minds when they heard what Jesus told them to do.

There are a couple of things that come to mind when looking at the text. Just like in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, there’s no transitional commentary on the part of Luke. No ‘grumbling among themselves, they still decided to do what Jesus said’. It goes directly from what Jesus told them to do to: ‘And as they went …’ the commentaries I studied each wrapped that question up very neatly: ‘They were obedient in faith that they would be healed, so they ALL alike obeyed.” Each scholar focused on the fact that the healing of all ten lepers occurred AS they engaged in the act of obedience, AS they walked down the road to see the priest to show themselves to him.

I don’t presume to be a Scholar. Yes, I passed Greek, and I have the books to use as a reference, but I go TO the books. That is what they are THERE for; to be used, to be consulted. I don’t know enough about the form and style of Luke’s writing to say definitively that he is telling us, “There’s something between the lines here. Pay attention.” But I can’t help but wonder.

Part of me would like to think that Jesus spoke to them with such authority and with such compassion that what little faith they might have had left in them blossomed into the kind of wonder-filled faith that took it for granted that, even as they began to take the first step in the direction that Jesus sent them, they WOULD be healed.

Another part of me wonders if the thought that first went through their minds was a world-weary “Let me check my agenda for the day, what else do I have going on … OH … NOTHING … what have I got to lose?!” And that first step got taken anyway.

But I stopped in the middle of that sentence. The rest of the sentence that began “And as they went,” is a simple statement of fact: “they were made clean.”

This is where the one story becomes two. Up to this point, the story has been one of healing. Jesus encounters ten lepers, they ask him for mercy – for God’s mercy to be shown through him – and he does just that – Jesus brings mercy into their lives in a way that they could hardly have conceived even in their wildest dreams: complete and total healing from their physical affliction.

Here the story turns, right in the middle of the paragraph.

15Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him.

The other nine kept walking. I’m sure they realized that they were healed, surely they would have felt their strength return, the feeling come back – surely they would have realized they weren’t shuffling along any more, dragging their legs and numb feet along the ground. Surely they would have noticed that they weren’t itching any more, the sores they had endured for so long had vanished, and they could close their lips and swallow with no parched feeling in their mouths.

And Jesus had TOLD them to go show themselves to the priest. So that is what they DID.

What ingrates! What gall! How RUDE!!!

Can you blame them?

After all, here was the reality that they had given up hope of ever once again attaining – of being reintegrated into their society. Of once again being surrounded by family and friends, of going back to their jobs and positions in their village, town, or cities. Of going back to the relationships they had been forced to leave behind.

Of going back to how things had been before.

But this one man was different. Yes, he was different in terms of his response to realizing he had been healed – that is obvious. He stopped heading to the priest’s place with the other nine and turned and came back to Jesus – and he didn’t just sedately walk back. He came praising God in a loud voice. And when he GOT back to Jesus, he didn’t just walk up to him and hold out his hand and say ‘hey, thanks man!’

No, he threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him.

And here Luke throws the wrench into the works of the Hebrew mindset.

“And he was a Samaritan.”

Luke does that quite a bit in his Gospel. Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke’s Gospel. He champions the role of the outcast, and their receptivity to the Gospel, more than any of the other Gospels. There is a prophetic element that we would do well to heed in the reading of those passages.

They foreshadow the rejection of Jesus Christ on the part of the majority of the Hebrew people, and the eager acceptance of the Gospel on the part of the gentile people in the rest of the world.

That may give us a hint of why the nine didn’t come back to thank Jesus. His question to his disciples speaks to the reaction he knew he would be receiving once he arrived in Jerusalem. Loosely put, he asks: “Correct me if I’m wrong, but … weren’t there ten of them? Where are the other nine? Couldn’t THEY have taken the time to come back and thank God for what they have been blessed with, or is this foreigner the only one who GETS IT??”

You see, the other nine had something to go back to … or so they thought. They had position. They had standing. They were part of the chosen people. They could regain that place in the world, and go back to feeling good about themselves. What had once been done out of a dutiful sense of humble gratitude among the Jewish people – the worship of God and the special relationship that entailed –had become, with the passing of time, a privilege to be assumed as inherent through the simple act of being born into the right family.

The Samaritan knew that, even though he was healed, he would still be viewed as a heretic and unclean by the priest by virtue of the fact that he had not been healed from his Samaritan heritage, and would still neither gain nor desire a place in Hebrew society. He recognized what truly mattered in the event of his healing. He had encountered God in the person of Jesus Christ, and that had changed him.

“Your faith has made you well.”

“Made well” seems a little odd for Jesus to be stating the obvious. “Yes, I healed you. Your faith made you well.” But here’s the thing about what Jesus is saying. When he says that, it’s the same word he used in his encounter with Zacchaeus that is translated as “to save”, when Jesus says that salvation has come to Zacchaeus and his house – “for the Son of man has come to seek out and to save the lost.” (19:10)

So … what does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton, on the fourteenth of October, 2007?

As we were reading the passage, as we were going through the story, who do we most identify with? Whose plight resonates with us most deeply?

Do we identify with those who, temporarily, it turns out, were suffering from their affliction, but were restored to their health and back into the society in which they returned to their place of privilege and importance in the world as it was, or does the revelation of the salvation of the Samaritan leper touch us more?

Do we understand our place in the world to BE that of outcasts, marginalized members of a society that would rather attempt to establish it’s OWN hierarchies of importance, with service, self-giving and love being somewhat FAR from the top of that list, and a sense of gratitude to God for the grace and mercy that we are so unworthy to receive being near if not AT the bottom?

How ready are we to recognize that what Jesus Christ has done for us is so radically new that it can do nothing OTHER than redefine who we are in the world, as servants, as slaves, as people who for the rest of our lives will strive to find ways to express our gratitude to God for what God has done – in the person of Jesus and through the presence of the Holy Spirit – both in each of us and through others FOR us, and THROUGH US for others. How long has it been since we ran back to Jesus, praising and thanking God in a loud voice, and fall at his feet?

Let’s pray.

Call to Mind
Sunday, October 7th, 2007
Nineteenth after Pentecost
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Lamentations 3:19-26
Theme: Remember God’s Faithfulness

19The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall! 20My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me. 21But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; 23they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” 25The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. 26It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Did you wonder if the floor was going to be there this morning when you got out of bed and put your foot down?

Did you wonder if the sun was going to be in the sky when you looked outside?

Did you consider for a moment the possibility that there might not be any air when you opened your mouth and yawned after starting to wake up?

When you came in and sat down this morning, did you pause to think of the possibility that the pew would collapse under you when you sat down?

The thing is, there are things we so take for granted that we don’t even think about them. Things that are so much a part of our background, of our environment, of our regular surroundings, that the thought doesn’t even register that they could be NOT THERE in the next moment.

I remember once when I was about 13 or 14, a fairly good-sized tremor hit Santiago, I think it was probably a 5.5 temblor on the Richter scale. Not enough to do a lot of damage, but enough to definitely rattle some windows and shake some furniture. I THINK we were sitting at the dining room table when it hit. There was an initial rumbling, something that could have been a low flying plane or a big truck going down our street, but then a second wave of sound came, and things started to rattle, not just on the table, but the HOUSE. Before I knew it I was out of my chair and halfway to the front door. To this day, I still feel ashamed that I wasn’t thinking about helping the other members of my family to get to either the doorway between the dining and living rooms or beyond that to the front door. I was ONLY thinking about MAKING IT there myself.

The lasting impression that I came away with from that experience, as well as other occasional brushes with plate tectonics along the Pacific Rim’s ‘circle of fire’, was the fact that things don’t always remain as solid as they seem.

And yet, it didn’t take long to go back into the ‘normal’ mindset and mostly forget that the whole house was shaking to the point of creating a few minor cracks along some of the walls and ceilings. Though I never lived close enough to one for it to be an issue, I think the same process takes place with folks who live near a volcano that erupts and then quiets for a time.

After all, you don’t expect the ground you walk on, the walls that are so solid, the mountain that your house is built on, to suddenly shift under your feet. It just doesn’t seem possible.

The writer of Lamentations, traditionally held to be Jeremiah, though there is some question about that, is confronted with a similar – in HIS mind – impossibility. Jerusalem, the holy city, David’s city, has been ransacked and destroyed. The temple has been desecrated and destroyed, and tens of thousands of his fellow Israelites have been deported hundreds of miles away.

The Babylonians first attacked and laid siege to Jerusalem in 597 BC, but didn’t finally invade, capture and destroy the majority of the city (though not all of it) until ten years later. Still, the totality of the event was as much a blow to the psyche of the Israelites as any physical attack might have been.

As we studied in Habakkuk a few weeks ago on Wednesday nights, the attack from Babylon and the subsequent deportation of the Israelites was not exactly a surprise TO the people of Israel. All the signs were there for many months if not years before the actual events took place.

And just like Habakkuk did, the writer of Lamentations came to the same place in dealing with the reality he was facing. That in spite of the trauma and the unimaginable nature of the disaster he was staring in the face, a sense of God’s unfailing presence – and more – broke through.

One commentator, Robert B. Laurin, puts it this way:

“The author is really saying: I thought all hope was gone, but my problem was that I had a very narrow view of God; but my problem was that I had a very narrow view of God; I thought only of the judgment of God and of my sin; I forgot about the mercy of God and his forgiveness.” (The
Broadman Bible Commentary, Vol. VI, pg 216-217)

And what is it that is discovered in the process of going through that trauma? What is the nature of the mercy and forgiveness of God?

The Hebrew term that we read as “steadfast love” is hard to translate into a single word. It implies a combination of ideas; it is made up of love, faithfulness, kindness, loyalty, and strength. It is the basic idea that is used to describe the covenant relationship that exists between God and God’s people.

But it is, even at that, a one-sided description of the relationship. It is, simply put, a description of GOD’S side of the relationship—GOD’S feelings, GOD’S emotions, and GOD’S care for the relationship. NOT ours.

So we have this incredible example of God’s faithfulness – Jeremiah’s, or whoever’s – recognition that in spite of the fact that Jerusalem has been destroyed, and in some sense, justifiably so, in light of the fact that the people of Israel had so lost sight of who they were, or who they were SUPPOSED TO BE, that it was going to take an invasion and a period of exile to bring them back around to remembering who they were – THROUGH ALL THAT God remained faithful.

And it is that faithfulness that we … rely on, that we sing about, that we breath in without evening thinking, that we even take for granted when we don’t think about it … it’s that faithfulness that we work to emulate, that we strive to copy, that we seek to live out in our life as a community of faith.

And it is that faithfulness that we recognize and affirm in the life of those who seek to serve the family of faith.

Janice Collins has been presented and approved as a deacon, the Greek word is best translated as “a servant.” The original deacons at the church in Jerusalem were charged with caring for the widows of the church and with waiting tables. It is essentially no different a task here. Deacons serve as ministers to the community at large. They are servants of the church. Those qualities have been identified in Janice, and today we are recognizing and affirming her position, of leadership, yes, but of leadership by example.

Because we are all called to serve each other, when it boils right down to it. We are all tasked with the responsibility of being Christ’s presence not only to the community around us, but more immediately, more noticeably, more literally, to each other. Because it is in the way we conduct the relationships we have inside the church that we learn how to carry on the relationships we have OUTSIDE the church.

(Ordination)

(Solo) (Hannah)

(Communion)

(prayer)

If Someone Rises
Sunday, September 30th, 2007
Eighteenth after Pentecost
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Luke 16:19-31
Theme: Do we truly live like we believe?

19“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 22The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. 24He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ 25But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. 26Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ 27He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— 28for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ 29Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ 30He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Do you remember the morning after you made your profession of faith? Did it feel different? Did anything sound different, look different, taste different to you?

I remember the morning after I made my public profession of faith, but in all honesty, not for the reasons I WISH I could name here, but for other, very self-centered ones. That day was my tenth birthday, and it was the last day of First Baptist church of Paducah’s youth camp at Natchez Trace State Park in western Tennessee, and I distinctly remember being terribly disillusioned that the entire camp didn’t stop and at LEAST sing me happy birthday. Then again, I WAS only ten. Though probably old enough to know better, still and all, it was an indicator of what my biggest struggle would be with in the following years as I grew up and as I matured as a follower of Christ.

It seems that, all things being equal, our emotional and physical wellbeing, our creature comforts and social network – meaning family and friends – if we were to try to spell out how exactly we’ve lived our lives differently from the person down the street who has never set foot in a sanctuary, who doesn’t give much thought to the place God might or might not have in the universe, much less their lives, but who lives a socially acceptable, law-abiding life, would we be able to? Could we point to specific acts, or thoughts, relationships and how they are conducted, that would distinguish those who claim to follow Christ as Lord of their lives and those who don’t?

That can be taken a couple of ways. It could be understood to be an indicator of how influential the body of believers who meet here on a regular basis has been, or ALL the congregations in the area have been in forming a Christ-like ethos – a Christ-like spirit in our community over the time we have been here. While that MIGHT be the case, if we look at the general spirit and character of the community, while we can agree that it is … more pleasant than some others in our state, it falls considerably short of being one that could be considered to be TRULY Christ-like. Even a quick read of our weekly local paper would put that idea to rest.

So how DO we distinguish ourselves as followers of Christ? By coming here on Sundays and Wednesday, or by knowing how to navigate the intricacies of Church life? By knowing what the Alma Hunt, or the Lottie Moon, or the Annie Armstrong Offerings are? By understanding the term ‘profession of faith’?

In telling the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus himself didn’t really give any details about where the two men’s hearts were. He just described the conditions they each lived in. The rich man was VERY rich – fine linen was a product of Egypt, and was expensive and rare. Likewise, the dye to make the purple cloth that he wore was also hard to come by, since it was made from a shellfish’s shell, and the mention of the fact that he wore purple cloth was a way of telegraphing to the listeners the fact that the man would probably be the equivalent of at least a multimillionaire in our day. Lazarus, on the other hand, is described in a way that is as eloquent today as it was then. He begged on the street, lay at the gate of the rich man’s house, and longed to satisfy his hunger with the scraps that dropped from the rich man’s table.

We’re given two lives from opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum, and that is all. There is no value judgment placed on their lives. There’s no storyteller’s note saying “the rich man was a cold-hearted, mean-spirited, thieving, greedy excuse for a human being, and Lazarus was a saint in beggar’s rags”, no. There’s nothing quite that clear in the parable.

What becomes patently clear is that SOMETHING WAS different between them, when we read of their afterlife. And this is where we begin to feel a little uncomfortable. Even the poorest of us can go to our closet and pull out clothes and shoes that would make even the rich man gasp in wonder at our wealth. We eat better than three quarters of the world’s population, and last time I checked I know of no one in our congregation who spends their days laying around at the entrance gate to one of our houses, waiting for the scraps to be thrown out in order to eat.

What was Jesus saying then, about the way people live their lives?

It’s important to keep in mind where this parable falls in the narrative that Luke is presenting. It is just after the parable of the dishonest manager, but between the two, Luke makes it a point to contextualize the telling of the parables. He offers this comment:

"The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him [Jesus]. So he said to them, 'you are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God'" (Luke 16:14).

So we have an idea of WHO it was that Jesus was directing the parables to: the well-established and comfortable-in-their place leaders of the temple.

It is hard to try to deconstruct the parable simply in terms of its face value. We can take the original Greek and discuss what the different words mean EXACTLY, or what verb tense may have been used in one place and why a different tense might have been used elsewhere, and it would end up probably being a fascinating piece of information, full of nuances and highlights that would give us a clearer idea of how it might have affected the lives of those Pharisees… but that’s not the point of the parable for US.

The point of the parable is to connect with the audience – whether a first century or a TWENTY-first century one.

We’re tempted to dwell on the particulars of the story – the fact that the rich man wore purple and fine linen, or that Lazarus is the only named character in any of Jesus’ parables throughout the gospel of Luke, or in the details of the afterlife – the references to burning and pain and torture that the rich man is suffering and the fact the Lazarus is standing next to Abraham. None of those are the central focus of the parable.

The point is found at the end.

Jesus was telling those who were listening to him tell these stories that they were hard of heart. That means they had no sympathy, no compassion. They had lost the ability to put themselves in someone else’s place, someone else’s shoes, or begging spot, as the case may be, in order to through that experience, be able gain an understanding of how God feels towards ALL of humanity. They had SO hardened their hearts that even if someone had risen from the dead in front of them, they would find some way to explain it away, and would again miss the whole reason Jesus was standing there talking to them.

So we come to the weekly question: what does the parable of the rich man and Lazarus mean for us here today, at Jerusalem Baptist Church in Emmerton?

The question for us from Jesus is still basically the same one he had for the Pharisees: what will it take for you to let what you BELIEVE make a difference in your life? Essentially, UNLESS it changes the way you live, you DON’T, in fact, BELIEVE IT. That’s about as simply as it can be put. There IS one CRITICAL DIFFERENCE between that audience and this. Besides the obvious, time place and culture, we have an event that actually turns this parable from an object lesson into a reality.

The resurrection.

So now we read back over that last sentence:

“… ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

And we realize that we HAVE to take the place of the rich man’s family in the story. We ARE the ones who have ‘Moses and the prophets’ in the form of the Bible – easily available to us, easily studied. We have an abundance of materials and commentaries virtually at our fingertips to open the scriptures to us.

But even more significantly, we HAVE the fact that someone DID rise from the dead to make it even clearer to us what we have to do. The question is, has THAT convinced us?

Do we really live in the reality that death has been defeated? Do we really live in the reality that the dog-eat-dog mentality of the world is the WRONG way to live, and that we are called to a more excellent way – of sharing in each other’s burdens, celebrating each other’s joys, walking beside each other under the Lordship of Christ, finding ways to break in the Kingdom of God here, now, today.

Do we give to the Alma Hunt offering because it’s that time of year or because we understand that through our giving we are enabling the message of the gospel to be shared throughout Virginia and around the world?

Do we come to church to make an appearance, or to actually encounter the word of God – both the written and the living, EXPECTING to be changed by it?

In the words of Paul: “What then, shall we say” – not with our mouths, but with our lives?

We have an opportunity to live out the Kingdom every day. Occasionally, we come across other opportunities. November 3rd through the 10th there is a team going to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi to help rebuild homes that are still needing to BE repaired in the wake of Hurricane Katrina back in 2005. If everything works out, a team will be going from Jerusalem to join them. Please pray over the next couple of weeks and ask God for guidance in how to respond to this invitation. The plan is to do light construction, drywall hanging, and painting. There will be other teams there at the same time, so we will not be alone. And there’s a lesson to be learned in that as well – in receiving grace, we are not alone, in extending grace, we are not alone.

In being the body of Christ, we are not alone.

Will we live our lives as if we ARE?

Let’s pray.

So That In Me

Sunday, September 16th, 2007
Sixteenth after Pentecost
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
1st Timothy 1:12-17

12I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, 13even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. 16But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. 17To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Have you ever noticed how much Paul uses the first person pronoun? This passage is FULL of the ‘I’ and ‘me’ words. “I am grateful’, ‘who has strengthened ME’, ‘because he judged ME faithful’, ‘appointed ME to his service’, ‘I was formerly’, ‘I received’, ‘I had acted’, ‘grace overflowed for ME’, and ‘I am the foremost’. I’ve heard Paul described as, among other things, an egomaniac, always talking about himself, holding himself up as an example, talking about how he was the most zealous, the most dedicated, the best student … we read about it in his letter to the Corinthians, to the Galatians, and in several other places. It is not that different here … but it is important to note WHAT he is saying he excels at. We read in verse fifteen: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the foremost”

Traditionally, Scholars have dated the writing of Paul’s epistle to Timothy between the years 62 and 67 of the Common Era – towards the end of Paul’s ministry. So if we accept that Paul became a follower of the one whom he first persecuted within three to five years of the resurrection, he is writing that he is (STILL) the foremost of sinners even after three decades of ministry; of missionary journeys, of preaching in marketplaces and synagogues, of discipling and teaching and admonishing and cajoling and, in some cases, even some pretty straightforward arm-twisting, as we saw Wednesday before last in studying Philemon.

You’d think, wouldn’t you, that somewhere along the way Paul would have reached some sort of milestone when it comes to sinning – something like those signs you see in factories ‘143 days with no accidents’.

It would seem maybe a little more encouraging to read ‘YOU too, can be like ME’ … after all, isn’t that what we WANT to see? That it IS an attainable goal, that we really CAN be free from sin, if even for a short while, or maybe, possibly, hopefully a … LONGER while?

To be a Christian is to be willing to – and to actually engage in the practice of examining – and reexamining – oneself on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. It is to be ready to question one’s motivations, one’s assumptions, and one’s unexpressed thoughts and test them against the witness of the Holy Spirit. It is to be on the prowl, as it were, for those stray thoughts and undercurrents that are so easy to rationalize on one level, but which, when viewed in the light of the Holy Spirit, reveal themselves to be less than what they first appeared to be.

Viewed in that light, then we are faced with the grim reality that faced Paul every day, and which caused him to write so honestly about himself even after thirty years of uninterrupted service of the Lord.

Why would he do that? Why point to himself as the foremost of sinners and in the next breath try to convince others to take him as an example? This is where we have to look at what he is saying, not just at the way in which he is saying it. And what DOES he say? Let’s read verse 16 again:

16But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life.

Paul has just finished saying Christ came into the world to save sinners – of which HE (Paul) is the foremost – and that it is BECAUSE OF THAT that PAUL received mercy – so that IN HIM (Paul) Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making HIM an example to those who would come to believe in … who? In Paul? NO! In CHRIST!!!

We like to idealize people that we read about in the Bible. Especially Stephen, the first martyr, or the disciples AFTER the resurrection (we’d rather skip over what they were doing the day BEFORE), and MOST especially, Paul. After all, he DID write all those letters, and made all those trips, and got thrown into prison, and was flogged and beaten and stoned nearly to death. So we almost automatically begin to build this glow about him in our minds … give him a pretty good beard and a clean head of hair, kind and gentle eyes, and a fire in the belly … never mind that for all we know of how Paul actually LOOKED, he could have been covered in warts, walked with a limp, had really bad teeth and had a grating annoying voice. He DID, after all, talk about asking God to remove the thorn in his side …

What I believe Paul is saying is to LOOK at him, YES, but that in looking at him, we realize that we are REALLY looking at ourselves, because we are no different FROM him, or put another way, that HE was no different from US.

The PROBLEM with doing THAT, though, is that it puts us on the same level.

Let me say that again. IT PUTS US ON THE SAME LEVEL.

What does that mean, especially for us here at Jerusalem Baptist Church on Sunday morning, September 16th, 2007?

It means we can expect to hold ourselves to the same standards that Paul did HIMSELF. It means that we are CAPABLE of being JUST AS BOLD as Paul was. It means that we can be just as CONTENTIOUS as Paul SOMETIMES was (as good Baptists, I think we’ve got that one covered!).

It also means that we can express ourselves just as Paul did, with the same depth of emotion, with the same feeling, with the same conviction, with the same passion that Paul did. It means that we can hold each other accountable just like Paul demanded accountability from Peter when he flipped on the issue of eating with gentiles. I wonder if I’m using the correct word. Maybe another word would be more appropriate – not only CAN we do these things, but we are RESPONSIBLE FOR doing these things. It is part of our calling, part of what makes us who we are – not as Baptists, but as Christ-followers.

You’ve heard me say it before and I will continue to say it until we begin to understand and practice what it means to LIVE IN COMMUNITY with each other.

I don’t mean ‘live IN the same community’, I don’t mean ‘neighborhood’, I mean FAMILY. THAT is the community spoken of in the New Testament. That is what WE HERE TODAY are still trying to hash out on a daily and weekly basis. And if we’re not working on it, working on building relationships, working on MENDING relationships, working on getting to know – REALLY KNOW each other EVEN THOUGH we’ve known each other all our lives, we are missing out on the greatest blessing that we can ever experience here on earth – that of being surrounded by and being a part of a family of faith that loves and supports one another, that breathes in the Holy Spirit and breathes out the love of God in their everyday life.

We’re not trying to RETURN to the faith community that we read about in Acts, we’re trying to understand what it means to BE IN that same KIND of faith community TODAY in Emmerton. We can’t recreate the first century church because we don’t live in the first century. We are TASKED with creating the twenty-first century church the body of Christ – building on what we can learn and have learned from the church that has been made up of people just like us working out their salvation with fear and trembling for the last twenty centuries!

We CAN do it. We CAN, we ARE capable of being sensitive enough to the leading of the Holy Spirit to take the next step. The question is, what will that step look like? Where will it take us?

We don’t HAVE TO know. It would be nice to, but we don’t have to. That is where FAITH comes in.

God has given us the word of grace and salvation to take to the world.

Will we pass it on?

Let’s pray.

Absolutes

(Formerly: None of You)
Sunday, September 9th, 2007
Fifteenth after Pentecost
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Luke 14:25-33

25Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, 26“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. 27Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my
disciple. 28For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? 29Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 33So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

“All your possessions”

“ALL your possessions”

“NONE of you”

“NONE OF YOU”

Just wanted to make sure we all heard those last phrases from Jesus.

Several weeks ago, as I was planning out the 6 weeks or so we are about to wrap up, today’s message title came out of what initially struck me the most from the Gospel passage for this morning – and that was – at first – Jesus’ words “none of you”. I typed it in along with the general theme of the service, and the responsive reading selection, and went on to the next week’s scriptures, and a couple of weeks later I was looking back over the list in preparation for what was to come, and read back over the passage … and noticed in the second reading that there are MORE phrases or words that carry the weight of ‘totality’ with them in what Jesus was saying – two words: ‘whoever (does not hate (v 26), does not carry the cross and follow me (v 27)’ and ‘cannot’(be my disciple x 2). In my mind the title of the message changed from what you see in the bulletin to a single word: ‘Absolutes.’

This is one of the most discomforting sayings of Jesus for me. And you know what is interesting? It has become MORE discomforting as I’ve grown older … I remember when I was a freshman in college; I didn’t bat an eye when reading this. My thought process was “of COURSE, that’s what it is going to take. It CAN’T take anything less than total commitment, radical commitment, absolute and complete surrender to Christ. I have to be willing to follow him wherever, whenever, however he asks me.” Of course, I was single; I had relatively few earthly possessions, and felt like I was the smartest person in the world. (Not really, but you get the idea!)

Then I grew up a little more, and realized the sacrifice my parents made, that other missionaries made, and that missionaries make every DAY. And I realized how much my parents and brother and sisters and those missionary aunts and uncles meant to me, and how much I loved them, and I read back over the first part of the passage – where Jesus says,

26“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children,
brothers and sisters … cannot be my disciple”

“Does not hate”

Eek.

Luke, if you remember, is one of the synoptic Gospels, that is, one of the three that share much of their content – Matthew and Mark are the other two. If you look in the Gospel according to Matthew, you can find essentially the same discourse, but with slightly different wording – Matthew’s is a little easier to read – there we find the words

26“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”

Based on this verse alone, I can see why Matthew’s Gospel became the most popular and therefore appears first in the New Testament. The message is still essentially the same, but he seemed to have more finesse with words.

And that last item in the list – “even life itself” …

I got married to a woman who still to this day amazes me by her passion and humor and grace and wisdom, and we had these three incredible kids who are funny and demanding and obedient (most of the time! ) and smarter than whips, and kind and caring, who lavish us with love and affirmation – MUCH more so than I remember EVER giving MY parents at their age … I get to pastor TWO groups of people who are at the same time walking alongside me in a journey that we are sharing of getting to know Christ, AND are teaching me HOW to be their pastor… sometimes still naïve about some things, and hopefully always open to some new insight, other times wrestling with issues and situations that I’m sure have confounded pastors throughout the centuries … it’s all good, and it IS a wonderful life … I have been blessed to have become a part of your lives over the last four years.

But does Luke then, expect me to understand that Jesus wants me to actually HATE my parents, brother and sisters, and life?

Before we dismissively say ‘of course not, we just need to love HIM so much more than them that comparing the two would be like comparing love and hate’, we need to understand the context that Luke is sending his Gospel into.

Scholars date the writing of the Gospel anywhere between 35 to as much as 50 years or more after the resurrection. In the intervening decades, Christianity has spread, and it has also begun to suffer some of the beginnings of more extensive persecution to come. Some followers of Christ were growing fainthearted in the face of that; some were even abandoning the faith. They were facing imprisonment, expulsion from their known world and environment, and just couldn’t handle it.

We’re again faced with a situation for which we really have little point of reference. It might be different if we lived in a country where becoming a follower of Christ puts you at risk of being cut off from your family. Has anyone here been cut off from their family because they became a follower of Christ? It DOES still happen. People ARE still paying with their lives for following Christ. In some cases, it is paying with the lives they have known up until that point – the person loses their job, is cut off from their family, becomes a non-person in the prevailing culture … but is still physically alive. In other cases it is in fact their life that they lose.

But not here.

And that is where WE are. So how do we apply this text to OUR situation, to OUR context? What does it mean to Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

Do we go back to the comparison between the degrees of love, love for Christ up here, love for family and life down there, but still love? Do we take it literally and start stoking a hate for our family and life?

I think the distinction needs to be made about the context. We are blessed to be surrounded by family who, for the most part, though maybe not entirely, affirms our decision to be followers of Christ. We didn’t risk much in choosing to follow Jesus. Or did we?

We are still called to die to ourselves. We are still called to surrender everything to the Lordship of Christ. We are still …called. And we are still SUBJECT to being called to do something we may not be thrilled about doing but that Christ still demands of us.

So we are still subject to the cost of being a disciple. And THAT was Luke’s point here. He put it in concrete terms for those who were choosing to remain with family or choosing the life they had lead up until then over following Jesus, when following Jesus would have meant losing those things.

Jesus’ words apply as much to us today because we STILL have to wrestle with what we are willing to give up in order to follow Jesus, in order to truly let Jesus be Lord of our lives. What is it that we don’t want to surrender to Christ? What are we less than thrilled about putting below our allegiance to Jesus? Are we willing to put our citizenship under the Lordship of Christ? Are we willing to say ‘I am a Christian first, a citizen of the United States second?’ Are we willing to put our pride in our history – even our family history – in this church under the Lordship of Christ? Are we willing to envision – and enact – what God wants to do through Jerusalem that would surprise and maybe even annoy our grandparents or great grandparents?

Look around. Are there more empty seats than there are occupied seats around you? Are we willing to submit who we are willing to sit and stand next to in worship to the Lordship of Christ? Jerusalem has a history for which we can be grateful, but our future is what is going to count just as much as our past. It is what happens from here on out that will determine the impact we have on our community as it is NOW as well as what IT is becoming.

A couple of Wednesdays ago we studied the passage that comes right before this one – where Jesus tells the parable of the guests invited to a great dinner – those guests – the “A” list folks, came up with excuses for not coming to the banquet – one had just bought some oxen and needed to check them out, another bought some land, another had just gotten married … in short, all the people one would ‘WANT’ to be seen with begged off and gave some excuse for not coming. So the master told his servant to go out in the street and call in anyone they saw – the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.

Who do we relate to in the story? Are we expecting the invitation, or are we surprised that we were even invited?

God’s grace is like that. Are we still overwhelmed by the fact that Christ counted us worth dying for, or do we sit back and say maybe mostly to ourselves, “well, of COURSE I’m worth dying for!”

It still surprises me, how much we … I have to work on submitting to Jesus. It’s a daily process, a daily examination, and a daily surrender.

Let’s pray.

Yesterday, Today and Forever

Sunday, September 2nd, 2007
Fourteenth after Pentecost
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Hebrews 13:1-8; 15-16

1Let mutual love continue. 2Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. 3Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. 4Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers. 5Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” 6So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?” 7Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 15Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. 16Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

What exactly does it mean to say for something to ‘continue’? What is implied in the use of the word? How is it different to say ‘continue’ as opposed to saying ‘start’? (Take answers)

To say ‘continue’ is to understand that something is already happening.

Does it seem unusual to you to jump into this morning’s passage and hear the writer of the epistle tell the folks being written to to continue to love each other mutually?

In terms of familiarity with scripture, no, it probably is not that unusual to read it. There are, after all, many other instances where the exhortation from the writers to the listeners was to continue to love each other.

But remember, we are not the original recipients of these letters. We ARE, I believe, INTENDED to receive these scriptures, but in purely physical, logistical terms, ours was not the address on the envelope when the letter was first mailed. But here we sit, nearly two thousand years after the pen was first laid to parchment, or papyrus, or vellum, or whatever medium was used to write on, thousands of miles from where the letter was first circulated, and we are supposed to figure out how this passage applies to us here today in Emmerton, at Jerusalem Baptist Church.

That is the beauty of having access to the Living Word of God. Even though it was written so long ago to a PEOPLE so far away, it is still relevant to US, here and now.

So we’re being told to let mutual love continue. Again, that is presupposing that the love was there before.

I’m going to take a few moments and invite us to share in another moment of silence. Not as long as our DISCIPLINE of silence, but I want us to concentrate for just a couple of dozen seconds on the people who are no longer in this room, but who once WERE.

I want us to think back over the last several years, even before we came to be with you, and I want us to play back in our minds, at random, just one or two events in which we interacted with one or two or three of the people who are no longer here. Whether that person is not here because they have passed away or have since moved on to another fellowship or moved away from the area is not important right now. What I want us to focus on is what emotion is coaxed from us by replaying that memory we have of them.

So, close your eyes and spend the next few seconds remembering. It can be a memory associated with being in this building or anywhere else, it is not geographically limited, but it TEMPORALY limited. It DOES need to involve someone with whom you have more or less lost contact. Ok. Go.

What is the emotion associated with the memory? Is it joy? Is it sorrow? Is it anger? Is it … indifference? Do we miss that person? Are we secretly relieved that that person is not around any more? Do we wonder how they are doing, if they are still alive? Do we miss talking to them, miss interacting with them?

Okay. Hold that thought, that emotion, that memory for a few minutes. We’ll come back to it.

Next question: what does it mean to be a Christian, to be a follower of Christ? Is it to hold to a certain set of beliefs and tenets of faith? Is it to understand the world and the universe in a certain way? Does it mean to behave in certain ways at certain times? (Take answers)

I think we can all agree that it’s not any one of those things, but rather a blend of all of them. To be a follower of Christ is to believe certain things, to have a certain perspective on the world, AND to DO certain things – and in truth to NOT do certain things – as a result of holding to those beliefs and views.

Any conversation, any definition of what it means to be a follower of Christ is incomplete from our perspective as Baptists if we do not also recognize and name the single most radical (basic) issue in being a follower of Christ – and that is to have a relationship with the risen Lord.

That having been said, the question we need to ask ourselves this morning is, how have we lived our lives this past week in a manner consistent with that? Is being a Christian a matter of culture for us? Are we Christian because we live in a supposedly predominantly Christian country? Are we Christian because it is easier to be a part of this community if we are identified as such?

In the first century Roman Empire, being a Christian was counter cultural. We became aware of that term in the 60’s, with all the social upheavals that decade brought, but it may have predated that decade and the term may actually have been coined in the 50’s with what was known as the “beat generation” … people who were intentionally living against the grain of the prevailing culture. I suspect that if we studied our history closely enough, we’d find counter-cultural pockets throughout.

The Christians who first received this letter were embarking on a life experience that was much more perilous for them than ours probably is for us. Choosing to follow Christ in the first century frequently involved the risk of losing at the LEAST one’s standing, job, family, or even life in a community and culture that would have been predominantly pantheistic, that is, that believed in a multitude of gods, would have been … let me make up a word here – polymoral – that is, society understood that by virtue of the fact that there existed a multitude of gods, there existed also a multitude of moral codes … which is to say, in essence, that there WAS no ONE moral code, no absolute sense of right and wrong. It was, in practice and in fact, an amoral society – one with NO defining moral outlook. Hmm … does THAT ring a bell? Have you taken a look at the magazines that are on sale in the checkout line at the grocery store? I believe on the whole, that the Church has had a positive influence on our culture, but not so much as to yet consider the Kingdom of God to be broken in.

And here we have this writer telling people to again, CONTINUE to love one another, to show hospitality to strangers, to honor the marriage covenant, to be sexually pure, to not be greedy, to be content with what they have, to remember their leaders, and if they live THEIR lives as good examples, to follow those examples.

These are fairly basic, nuts and bolts ideas on how to live their lives as followers of Jesus Christ. The thing about these instructions, though, is that … they are not in ANY way that I can tell LIMITED in their applicability to the people who lived during the first century. ALL of these are just as relevant to our lives today in 21st century Virginia as they were to 1st century Asia Minor.

Did you hear that? That was the sound of 20 centuries of intervening history melting away through the prompting of the Holy Spirit. (grin)

So let’s get back to that first thing we were doing.

Remember the emotion you felt in relation to that certain person or those certain people that you brought to mind in our exercise at the beginning of the message?

It’s easy to do that exercise thinking of someone with whom you are unlikely to have continued contact. There’s a buffer built into it in the understanding that to whatever degree it might be the case, what’s done is done. There’s very little that can be done about that relationship now – very little expectation placed on us in a situation that cannot be resolved or addressed without both parties present.

It is a little harder to face the completion of that exercise with a slightly more immediate focus. Look around. Go ahead, look around. I want us to get a really good idea of who is here in the room with us. Now, while you are looking around, as different people come into your line of sight, I want you to think back on some interaction you had with each of the people you are seeing. Now we go back through the same questions as with the other person: What is the emotion associated with the memory? Is it joy? Is it sorrow? Is it anger? Is it … indifference? Or is it a little stronger? Are you feeling an emotion that you would rather not associate with being in Church? Are you having trouble being in the same room with the person?

Now let’s get to the point. What this means for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton on the 2nd of September of 2007.

We are each wired different. You’ve heard the term polar opposites? Do you know where the term comes from? It is a description of magnetic forces. Have you ever tried to force the two positive or the two negative ends of two magnets together? It can’t be done. You may be able to hold them together by applying continual force, but once that force is removed, or eased, the two ends move apart.

I’m not naïve enough to expect us all to get along.

We are not called by God to become identical to each other, seeing the world the same way, holding the same views, understanding things in exactly the same way, LIKING the same songs, the same forms of worship, the same versions of scripture, the same Sunday school literature. God’s infinite creativity made us each as individuals, with equal worth in God’s eyes.

If the emotion you were feeling a few minutes ago in any way caused you to view the person prompting those feelings as anything less than a beloved child of God, then your relationship with that person is broken. God didn’t call us to be like each other, God didn’t call us to like each other. God DID call us to LOVE each other, to be in relationship with each other just as the different members of our bodies are part of one body. You’ve heard the passage from 1st Corinthians 12 – if you are not familiar with it, start reading at verse 12 and keep going. The RUB is the difference between not liking someone and yet being called to love them. That can be hard at times.

Folks, this is basic elemental Christianity. If we can’t treat each other with love and respect, accepting our differences and still agreeing to join together in genuine fellowship and in working toward the inbreaking of the kingdom of God, all we’re doing is going through the motions, we’re paying lip service to what following Christ means. In case you were wondering, that means we’re SAYING one thing, but actually living a totally different reality. More to the point, Jesus talked about thoughts as much as deeds. What is in your HEART makes as much difference as what comes out through your lips.

Jerusalem has a challenge for the incoming year. It’s actually the same challenge that faces each of us each day of our lives. Will we let our lives reflect what we say we believe, or will we just lay low, pretend to be a family when in fact we would just as soon not be anywhere near each other, not feel the need in any way to pick up the phone or to knock on the door, or … maybe even walk across the room and say ‘you are my brother in Christ, you are my sister in Christ, I DO love you, but I need you to help me reestablish our relationship, because it has not been there for some time now.’

This is where the reality of what the writer to the Hebrews was dealing with intersects with our own reality. What is more important to us? Being right or being forgiven? Will we forget that we are all fallen sinners, none deserving, but blessed by the grace of God to have received God’s forgiveness? Or will we let pride keep us from taking that first step towards redeeming relationships?

Let’s pray.

You have, O God, shown us the way. You made yourself human and lowered yourself to the form of a servant even unto death. So teach us to die to ourselves not just in our relationship with you, but even in our daily relationships with each other, so that it will be YOU shining through in ALL that we do, through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Our hymn of response is ‘Redeemed How I Love to Proclaim It’, number 544. I would caution you that as you sing it, don’t for a minute think that we can sing about being redeemed by the blood of the lamb for salvation and it have NO bearing on ALL our other relationships, ESPECIALLY with those whom we call brothers and sisters in Christ. Let’s stand and sing.

Ought Not This Woman?

Sunday, August 26th, 2007
Thirteenth after Pentecost
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Luke 13:10-17

10Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” 13When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day.” 15But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? 16And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?” 17When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

What does Sunday morning mean to you? When the sun comes up and you rise out of bed, get cleaned up, dressed, eat breakfast and go through all the usual morning routines … what does the prospect of the day hold for you? Specifically, what did you wake up this morning expecting to find here this morning?

In case there’s any question, I don’t mean “find” in physical terms. I mean in terms of … for lack of a better word, relationships. Did you look forward to coming through the front doors of the sanctuary, or whichever door you came through? Did you look forward to seeing and greeting and speaking to your family of faith here at Jerusalem? Was your mind alive with the possibility of what God may have for you here today?

Or were your thoughts elsewhere? Were they on other issues, other concerns, perhaps a family member who is ill, or on the approaching school year and what that means for YOUR family… maybe your morning was dominated by the need to prepare for what your work holds for you this week. Please understand, there’s no criticism implied in the questions, it is simply A QUESTION. And it is one that I need to raise if for no other reason than to get us thinking about what we are THINKING.

I have to be honest with you. As I wrote this, I know where I was HOPING my mind would be come Sunday morning, but I have no way of knowing beforehand what in fact will be the case. There are any number of factors that play into that. Some Sunday mornings I consider ‘pure’ days … those are mornings when I wake up and feel confident in what I think the Lord has led me to prepare for the day. Other Sundays that feeling is … less apparent. There can be an exchange with the kids or with Leslie, or with anyone, really, that may throw things out of whack … I’m still getting used to that, even after four years. It may be an unexpected visit from one of our Latino friends, as has happened on occasion, or it can be in a quiet conversation here in the sanctuary or in the foyer, people sharing their pain and their struggles with what life has thrown them in the previous week makes for holy moments where the Holy Spirit joins hearts and communicates through hugs and tears.

I CAN tell you this: though it is more unsettling to be thrown a curve ball before the worship service, it is not as important to me how I feel going INTO the morning, because it is what happens at the END of the morning that makes the difference to the rest of the day, sometimes the rest of the WEEK, and on rare occasion, the rest of MY LIFE.

I wonder what the woman in our text this morning walked into the synagogue expecting that Saturday morning. I wonder what was occupying the lion’s share of her mind. I imagine that after 18 years, she’d gotten used to being in the condition she was in, insofar as that is possible – for someone to come to terms with any sort of chronic condition, having first experienced good health. From the description of her, it could have been what we know today as osteoporosis, or it might have been that she had severe curvature of the spine that worsened with age, the text does not tell us how old she was, but by using the word “woman” rather than “girl”, the inference can be made that she was not young.

We can safely say that this was not the first time that she’d been to church. From the reaction of the leader of the synagogue, it is likely that Saturday morning was not the first day that week that she had BEEN to synagogue. If the place was open for healing and other regularly scheduled activities the other six days of the week, I suspect that she had been there each day for at LEAST some of the day. It makes you wonder what she’d do when she came. Pray, I’m sure, but what? “Dear God, is today the day, or will I bear this burden yet another day?” Or did she pray with more passion, “WHY GOD??!! WHY ME??!! WHAT DID I DO??!! WHAT DID THEY DO??!!” Remember, in the Hebrew tradition, being afflicted with a malady, either an illness, or a deformity, or some other form of limitation, was understood to be a judgment from God for some wrong committed --- either by you or by your parents, perhaps, if it was bad enough, by your GRANDPARENTS. And you were treated accordingly, meaning, you were generally shunned, cast out, ostracized.

Jesus speaks to that understanding, but first, he raises a ruckus.

You see, he heals her. She didn’t ask for it, at least it is not recorded if she did. He just seems to see her and calls her over, lays hands on her and tells her

“Woman, you are set free from your ailment.”

Hmmm … funny that he would use that terminology – ‘set free’… like from a prison.

One of the most sacred times I spend with people as they approach death is that time when they come to terms with the fact that they are passing from this world into the next. When it is looked forward to – when they start to let go of things here on earth – either through the physiological effects of the body shutting down – loss of appetite, long periods of sleep, things like that, there is truly a sense that their body is keeping them back, and they are ready to move on – to another realm, a more perfect existence, where the body is not a hindrance.

But Jesus doesn’t usher this woman into ANOTHER realm, he makes her whole in THIS realm, he makes her body well. He gives her and the rest of the people at the synagogue that day a chance to approach a thin place in the veil … to catch a glimpse of the Kingdom of God made earthly reality. And what is the reaction?

Well, we’re given two; one on the part of the leader of the synagogue, the other on the part of the crowd.

The leader of the synagogue, the rabbi, generally a respected and honored member of the community, a pillar of it, if you will, seems to be set on what is allowed and what is not on any given Sabbath. He’s big on the ‘Hows’ of worship. He understands the intricacies of how far you can go before you break the law. He knows the number of steps you can take, the amount of weight you can lift, the foods that are allowed, that are not, and the people with whom you can associate – and not – in order to remain within the good graces of Yahweh, and therefore, remain acceptable to the rest of the community.

Jesus, seems to be unable to care LESS for the “Hows”. His focus is on the WHOs. Who is coming through the synagogue door? Who is sincerely seeking the will of God for their life? Who is earnestly eager to hear the scripture read, and open to listen with a new and different ear the words that are coming forth? Who is here that God has been prepared ME to encounter?

Does the Rabbi’s reaction strike you as nonsensical, or can you understand where he’s coming from? I’m not looking for one or the other answer, but I DO want to take a few minutes and talk about both possibilities.

First, the latter:

*I* CAN understand where he’s coming from, sort of. It took some thinking, but it makes sense.

You see, it’s about control and it’s about understanding, and it’s about being in the loop. It’s about clarity, and boundaries, and expectations. The leader of the synagogue has a routine, has a tradition, has a certain way of doing, seeing, and understanding things. It has become second nature to him. He is totally at ease in that world. He knows what comes next, he knows what is expected of him and most of all, he knows he’s “IN”. He’s one of the chosen people, one of the twelve tribes of Israel, or rather at this point, one of the remaining two. He knows what he (and everyone else, by association) is allowed and not allowed to do on the Sabbath. He’s spent his life working on perfecting that knowledge. He is wholly invested in that understanding, and wholly GIVEN to it, by virtue of his position in the town and the synagogue.

Now for the nonsensical view of the response:

WHAT WAS HE THINKING???

Did healings like this happen every day in first century Palestine? Did little old women who were so bent over that they couldn’t even stand up straight ROUTINELY walk in through the doors of the synagogue and a few minutes later walk out with their head held high, their backs straight as a rod??

This is about the improbable, the unpredictable, the indescribable, the unexpected, the counterintuitive; breathtaking surprises, gasps of wonder, followed by joyous laughter, and the fact that God is bound and determined to spring one on us every chance God gets.

It is about losing sight of the forest for all the trees.

Our friend the Synagogue leader got so caught up in the “How” of DOING religion – the trees – that he completely forgot the “Why” of doing religion – the forest. In terminology that may be clearer: he got so into ‘practicing’ his faith that he forgot the reason he’d acquired it to begin with. He was going through the motions with little or no regard for the motivation BEHIND the motions.

Understand me: the “motions” in and of themselves were not bad, ARE not bad. There is a place for order, for predictability, for security and for comfort in the living out of our faith, but if we lose sight of the REASON we are going through those motions to BEGIN with, we will justifiably be called hypocrites right alongside this man.

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton on August 26th, 2007? Are we in danger of losing sight of the forest for all the trees? Are we becoming so caught up in dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s that we forget to take in what the words – ALL THE WORDS – are saying? Every week we have an opportunity to be amazed. Every week we experience struggles and hardships and get pounded by any number of things – from within as well as without – that bring us to the brink of collapse, that have us so bent out of shape that we can hardly stand up straight. And suddenly, out of the blue, Jesus touches us and says, “You are set free from your ailment.”

How are we going to react to that touch? Will we receive it in wonder, or will we be stuck on the fact that it didn’t happen sooner, or later, or … slower, or in the way we expected it to, with the WORDS we expected it to, to the PEOPLE we expected it to?

My prayer is that we will always be open to the newness of God in our lives.

Let’s pray.

The World Was Not Worthy

Sunday, August 19th, 2007
Twelfth after Pentecost
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Hebrews 11:32- 40

32And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— 33who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, 34quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. 36Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented— 38of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. 39Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.

Can we truly imagine being thrown to the lions? Or being drawn and quartered, or sawn in two by a wooden saw, as tradition holds Isaiah was? Can we imagine being put on trial for our beliefs and be in peril of our lives for them?

Can we really say how we would respond … how we would react, if we woke up one day and there were jackbooted paramilitary police knocking down our doors and hauling us over to the regional jail because of what we gather here to do, and go out from here to live?

There are multitudes of ways in which our faith can be undercut, co-opted, and watered down … some blatantly and others surreptitiously, without our being aware of it … something as simple as allowing a whim to give us a ready excuse to skip church, or as stealthy as avoiding studying those passages in the Bible that make us uncomfortable, uneasy, or which don’t fit into our neat little boxes we try to put God in. We try to explain away stuff that makes us struggle with what we try to understand about God.

It is, after all, a heavy undertaking. The time we spend here, or at home, studying and thinking about … PONDERING … what scripture says about God, is supposed to have some sort of effect on how we carry on with our lives.

Juan Carlos Ceballos, the speaker at the retreat we just came from, who pastors a church in El Paso, Texas, and works at the Spanish Baptist Publishing House there, and who served as the Director of the Seminary in Ecuador, his home country, before moving here, reiterated for those of us attending the retreat in one of our sessions, the fact that there is a cultural influence on the Christian faith that worked its way in when the Christian Church became … accepted, once it became officially sanctioned, and that is the division between the study, or the learning of the faith, and the DOING of the faith. It is an idea that comes from the Greek philosophers – the idea that there is a life of the mind and another, separate life of the body. There is an implicit assumption on the part of those who engage in the life of the mind that it is a ‘higher’ form of living, that those who engage in a living by the labor of their hands are somehow ‘lesser’.

Hmmm … can we think of any examples of that in our society?

That dualism has worked its way into the church. Who is held in higher esteem, the Pastor or the custodian? What does our worship focus on as ‘the main course’? (The preaching?) The description of the services in the early church that we find in the book of Acts sets no hierarchy of importance between the singing of hymns, the joining in prayer, and the word of exhortation or instruction. So how has that worked its way into our traditions, and why?

Are we on some level separating our beliefs from our practices? In isolating the WORD from the living out of our lives, are we allowing ourselves, giving ourselves permission to, in some subtle, unconscious way to say ‘this (hold up Bible) is for the mind, for the spirit, but doesn’t always apply where the rubber meets the road?’

The thing is, we do not find evidence in scripture for the pursuit of the knowledge of God and Christ as a goal IN AND OF ITSELF, it is rather understood and expected and even … DEMANDED that knowing God, knowing Jesus PRESUPPOSES that our lives will in some way SHOW that relationship, DISPLAY that relationship, if you will. It is not ONLY an expectation that the custodian take time to study scripture and spend time in prayer and devotion, but also that the preacher spend some time scrubbing floors or dishes or painting or … whatever … that it not be ONLY the pastor who engages in visiting the sick and homebound, or leading a Bible study, prayer time, or mission trip, but ANY church member may be so prepared. It is a VERY level playing field when it comes to putting our faith into action, folks. We are ALL expected to do it!

So how does all that connect with the passage we just read?

Here it is: I tend to become intimidated when I even HEAR the name ‘Paul the Apostle’, or SAINT Peter, or James, or any of the folks named – Moses, David, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Obadiah … Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David and Samuel, Hudson Taylor, Adoniram and Anne Judson, Lottie Moon, Annie Armstrong, Dietrich Bonhoeffer … or even Alma Hunt – and I’ve MET her!!! She’s tiny!!! Stands up to just about my waist!

Why do I become intimidated? Because they have, over the years, become the giants of the faith, the trailblazers, the models whereby we pattern and live our lives … we tend to put these people on pedestals, because they lived (for the most part) so long ago, but also because we have become familiar with their accomplishments, or their sacrifices – even to the point of death. I could never imagine myself … and very few people I know … maybe one or two … being named in the same sentence with any of them.

And yet, let’s take a look at the rest of the passage … the people the writer goes on to describe – those who …

suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented— 38of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

Who were they? Fox’s Book of Martyrs chronicles the stories of many of those who gave their lives for the faith, and we could sit and read them and begin to feel smaller and smaller and more and more inadequate … and wonder and ask ourselves if we would have the courage to do the same if we were to be placed in the same circumstance … and somewhere deep down inside us there’s a voice that is saying ‘no, of course not! We would be crumbling … and we fall into a trap.

It’s a simple trap, it is just a thought process, but it is a trap still and all. It’s a trap that convinces us to believe that how we die is more important than how we live.

And while how we die will make a statement, it is how we live that will have the more lasting impact, I would dare say, and I would venture to say it is the harder of the two.

The writer of Hebrews again brings out the fact that those named in THIS section of chapter 11 as well as those named earlier, namely Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,

… All these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.

So we have more examples of people who lived a promise they never saw fully manifested in their lifetimes. And yet, they did it – they LIVED IT – anyway.

What are we called to do, as followers of Christ? What are we supposed to BE while we toil and labor here on earth together? What CAN we become if we overcome our jealousy and pettiness, our narrowness of understanding? We can become the body of Christ.

What does that mean, to be the body of Christ? We can think of it in theoretical terms, in the form of a concept, but I think it’s actually pretty simple. What does a BODY do? Seriously, PHYSICALLY, what does a body DO? If it is not otherwise incapacitated, a body moves, walks, sometimes runs, lifts, turns, bends over, reaches up, reaches out, reaches down, rests, and works … it’s not such a theoretical undertaking, it’s not pure concept that we are talking about. It is a reality to put into ACTION!

The last verse of today’s passage gives us a clue, I think, of what we are a part of in a larger sense than just here locally … and the writer goes on to describe that in chapter 12. You’ve heard me mention it before – that cloud of witnesses. But what I’d like to draw your attention to here is where WE get included …

40since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.

So that they would not, APART FROM US, be made perfect.

There’s the promise we are ALL a part of … God has provided something better … and in that “something better” we will all be made perfect. He’s just gone through this list of Giants of the faith, of people who stood up to Lions, and Kings, who turned the world upside down. And he’s talking to people who are being beaten down – by life, by circumstances, sometimes by their own choices. And he’s saying ‘here’s the promise! We will, along WITH THEM everybody that we put on that pedestal – we will all be made PERFECT! How can we grab a hold of that promise? How can we live out what it means to be a part of the body of Christ? It means, to a degree, we live in the future. There is an unhealthy aspect to that, but that is a separate issue. There’s a part of not living in the present … it is an invitation to live in the present as if it were the future. We are part of the Kingdom. We are part of bringing that kingdom of God into the world that we live in now, here, today. And in living out that Kingdom here today, we are walking into a future where the kingdom will be fully manifested. That takes faith, perseverance, that takes endurance, that takes constant encouragement, and encouraging – whether we give it or receive it. And that is why we are not alone in this – that is why God has called us to family, to community, to be one body with many parts.

Let’s pray.

Loving God, sometimes we struggle with the simplest things.
And then comes along this incredible thought: that you are one day going to make us perfect. And it is your promise and you have asked us to live in that promise. So while we struggle and strive FOR perfection, help us together be your functioning body, here in Emmerton, in Warsaw, in Richmond County, on the Northern Neck, in Virginia, the United States, and the rest of the world. Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Our hymn of decision is number 287, ‘Take My Life, Lead me Lord’.
If you’d like to go ahead and open your hymnbooks to that
The invitation is to reflect, to decide, to choose.
To make yourself lead-able, to make yourself guide-able, to make yourself … what? To make yourself available to God.

Let’s stand and sing.

By Faith

Sunday, August 12th, 2007
Eleventh after Pentecost
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

1Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. 3By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. …8By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. 9By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old—and Sarah herself was barren—because he considered him faithful who had promised. 12Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, “as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.” 13All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, 14for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. 16But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.

“Truth or Dare?”

Even today, probably 30 years since I played that game the last time, hearing those words echoes with the weight of the near-absolute power that peer pressure carried with it in my adolescence. If you are familiar with the game, no explanation is necessary. If you are not, it involved making one of two choices, and following through on that decision no matter what the requirement.

The challenge question, “Truth or Dare?” was presented, and you had to choose one or the other. To choose the first, Truth, meant that you had to answer truthfully any question put to you by the challenger. To choose the second, the dare, meant that whatever you were challenged to do, you had to do … usually it involved kissing one of the girls. Oddly enough, it never seemed to be brought to anyone’s attention that that might be more of a challenge for the person RECEIVING the kiss than the person GIVING it.

We were bored preteens and teenagers, and when we got together, if the weather was such that we couldn’t be outside, there were only so many rounds of Spades, or Rook you could play.

In retrospect, the thing about the game was that you played with people you trusted, people you knew. When it came to be your turn, you had to know the person challenging you enough to know what they might ask of you – whether a truth question or a dare to do something. It’s funny, but even that game worked its way into the foundation of those relationships that are still there today. Although we may communicate only once or twice a year, in some cases even less frequently, my fellow MK’s and I formed a bond that allows us to pick right up from the last time we spoke and carry on as if no time has passed. It’s hard to describe, but it speaks to a sense of family that transcends the facts of time and distance.

I believe that was what the writer of Hebrews was pointing to in this recounting of the history of points of faith of Abraham that we find in the text today for the folks who were going to read this letter – both the direct recipients as well as those who’ve become the subsequent recipients over the ensuing centuries.

There is a commonality that we share with Abraham that transcends time and distance; that resonates with where we come from and where we are headed, and it comes directly from how much we act on – and in – faith.

We could ask ourselves, for example, what kind of faith it took for those one hundred and forty-four people to step away from the congregation at Farnham church and establish themselves as a separate congregation here?
In the act of separating, the reason being lost to history, even though it was probably painful in many ways, there was also a sense of hope in the future of that group, a willingness to take a risk and move forward, into uncharted waters, to see what God had waiting for them there.

What kind of faith did it take for those same folks to decide to build a new, larger sanctuary when the log building they were meeting in grew small? The log building was probably small to begin with, so it may well have been as much out of necessity as vision, but even in that necessity, there was, I imagine, a sense that God would continue to bless the faithfulness of God’s people.

We sometimes forget that Sunday School has not always been a part of our weekly tradition as Baptists. It is a relatively recent addition to the Sunday morning routine, having only come into common practice around the same time the Royal Oaks congregation constituted itself into a church, and the concept as a whole is only a few years older than the church itself, having been ‘invented’, if the word applies, by a man by the name of Robert Raikes in England, in 1780.

Who knows, the issue of a Sunday School may have even had a part in the formation of the church itself, and the subsequent decision to build the larger building.

What kind of faith was it that compelled the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the original members to decide to expand that original building, add classroom space to the front and back of the white frame structure?

There’s a wonderful passage in verse 13:

“All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them.”

Can you hear the faith in those words? (Read again) – but from a distance they saw and greeted them. To greet something or someone usually implies an act of welcome, an acceptance of that person for who he or she is, or that THING for what IT is. Here we are seeing a promise made by God to God’s people, and it was one that at the time was as yet unfulfilled. But the fact that it was unfulfilled did not stop Abraham and Isaac and Jacob from still living in the reality of the promise, living in the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen …

There’s a beauty in those last few verses of the passage that speak of what MIGHT have been the case, what COULD have happened, if Abraham and his descendants had chosen to look back on what they could be thankful for and chosen rather to focus on THAT rather than FORWARD, on what was to come – reading on:

“They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, 14for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. 16But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one."

We’ve talked of this before. How often do we remind ourselves in our youth that this earth is not, in truth, our home? It becomes easier to think of the earth in that sense as one grows older, and is facing one’s own mortality, but it is almost absent from our thinking when we are young and supposedly have our whole life ahead of us.

We DO have to suppose that we have most of our lives ahead of us, don’t we, in order to function in the life we have? But as Christians we need to always keep in the back of our minds the fact that our home is indeed away from here, with God.

Verse 15 caught me by surprise. As often as I’ve read this passage, it had not until now jumped out at me like it did this time: (read)

What do you suppose the writer meant in saying ‘They would have had the opportunity to return’? I think the writer is saying the story would have ended there.

We are creatures of habit, and we would much rather hang onto what we know than take on something new, something unknown. But what if that something is something that God can’t wait to show us? What if it is the next step in our walk of faith, in our “long obedience in the same direction”, as Eugene Petersen said?
Is our faith the same forward-looking faith as that of our forbearers? Is ours a faith that will accept the reality of the promise of blessing and presence and perseverance even if we can’t, from this vantage point, see it clearly?

Is that a TRUTH we DARE to embrace? Do we KNOW God enough, do we TRUST God enough, is our relationship TO God such that we won’t hesitate to open up to what it is God has planned for us, even if it makes us, in the short term, uncomfortable – because all new things do, after all?

The last phrase from verse 16 is both a promise and a warning.

"Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them."

Let it be so with us, to not be ashamed to follow God into this new and different land, into what we have not done before, or known before, because what is before us bears little resemblance to what has BEEN before.

We know human nature has remained unchanged, and we know also that the only true change in a person’s life comes through following Christ as Lord, and that MESSAGE will not change, but our method, our presentation of that message HAS to change if it is to be heard, if it is to be given an audience in the world that is changing around us every day.

Let’s pray.